It’s remarkable just how much damage the MAGA GOP can take in a single month. I was talking with Simon Rosenberg and Joe Trippi last night on the Strategy Session, and the thought came to me that Donald Trump and the MAGA GOP have had a truly awful month…and so much of it is utterly self-inflicted. He’s got legal, political, and structural problems compounding daily, and while I’m normally not a bluebird of happiness on these pages, I wanted to share some good news with you:
If Trump gets R states to refuse to hold elections and / or refuses to leave office in 28 for _____ reason. Who will remove him?
The military, FBI, Homeland Security Justice dept. , etc will be controlled by his fellow dictator worshippers. State governors have national guard, but R state N guard will not participate or oppose. SCOTUS has no army nor does the House or Senate.
How does America rid itself of a president who demands loyalty to himself, and finding plenty of seditionists interested, decides to keep power and become a dictator?
Isn't it long past time to arrest and incarcerate without bail ALL of the Congressional participants in the J6 insurrection? Lincoln's assassins and accomplices were all hanged by now in that conspiracy...
When he decided to run for president, Trump saw it as a branding opportunity. He was a lifelong Democrat (for NY machine politics reasons), solidly pro-life and he flirted briefly with the Reform Party (when he reveals full well that he knew David Duke was a former Kluxer), but I think he became addicted to the adulation he got as spokesman for ACN (a pyramid scheme he's being sued for that Robbie Kaplan is representing) at stadium events. Then he went down the rabbit hole with the birther stuff and palled around with Jerry Falwell, Jr. He realized there was an inexhaustible supply of marks in the Republican Party, so running for president would be the ultimate revenge against the Manhattan elites who had spurned him his whole life.
When he won, it turned out to be a sweet grift indeed. But it also brought back all the lurid stuff that every Tri State Metro tabloid reader remembered about him and that The Apprentice made the nation forget. In NY, all attention is good attention but as a president it's a double edged sword. He settled the Trump University lawsuit for the at the time eye-popping $25M. He defamed E. Jean Carroll and Barr put the kibosh on her action. He went after Michael Cohen for the same thing he's charged for in the Stormy Daniels affair, Barr railroaded him and a very furious and very righteous Michael Cohen emerged from jail and testified to Congress, igniting the NY criminal and civil fraud actions. And of course he was impeached in an attempt to interfere in the '20 election by leveraging what has turned out to be a false narrative about Hunter Biden and his father that was concocted by Russian intelligence.
If it was just about the money, Trump could have left office sitting pretty, his brand juiced again on the same steroids that Mark Burnett injected him with. But his overwhelming reason was and is to stay out of jail, which he of course compounded in epic form by the J6 Big Lie.
Grab him by the pursey. When he's a fool, he'll let you do it ;)
I'm from NY. His father was a grifter and a racist. Donald is too. He's a bad businessman and terrible person. All you say is also true but from the standpoint of a normal person that somehow drifted into the shadows. That back story is wrong. He *is the shadow. I recall those days in NY, I didn't party with him but I did at Studio 54 and knew of the crowd he hung with there and other places. Bad and to be avoided then and now. The problem is he got into office.
By grifter, I only mean Fred Trump got loans on promises he didn't exactly keep. Sound familiar?
I'm from NJ. I knew what Trump and his dad were in the late 70s from reading Wayne Barrett in the Village Voice. I was talking about his motivations. He ran for president as a branding exercise with very little faith that he'd win. If he lost, it would be almost the same result for the Trump brand. There's evidence that on election night he had a moment of terror that he'd actually have to be be president now.
George Conway makes the point that if you're going to do criming in the shadows, it's best not to become the highest of high profile public figures. That led to what will be his eventual downfall that has started with judgments that he doesn't have the cash on hand to pay.
It's every GOP consultant's worst nightmare because older people like to vote by mail and older people have traditionally voted more for Republicans (though Joe has the lead now with the older boomers). But Trump's lizard brain also knows that the GOP is not attractive to anyone beyond his MAGA cult. It stands for tax cuts for the rich, corporate deregulation and abortion restrictions which are as popular with voters as an onion fart in a Volkswagen.
But Trump needs that purified, distilled MAGA cult of adoring worshippers who will follow him anywhere and believe all his lies, purged of all dissent and critical thinking. So he knows by instinct that the only way for MAGA to win elections is to suppress turnout, even if it means suppressing his own voters (because he's too dumb to think about this strategically). Hence his ludicrously self-destructive war on mail-in voting, despite using it himself.
I so miss the old Twitter! I had my own little community of interesting, productive and even fun people. And then Musk ruined it. Rick Wilson and Joyce Vance have gathered the type of people I want to engage with. I don't need everyone to agree with me. I just need intelligent back and forth and the ability to learn from others. Thank you, Rick!
Amen, Robin. I really loved Twitter when it was good, but even at its best it was too trolly and too full of would-be influencers obsessed with reach. Twitter always had a whole bunch of bad incentives. But what I've found posting here just a week or so is the total lack of bad faith. I saw exactly one trolly comment everybody jumped on (but me) and that's it. And I very much like to debate and have back-and-forth's with people. But there's no snark here, there's no disrespect, there's no assuming bad motives. This comment section may not have anywhere near the reach of Rick's Twitter feed, but that has a good side because it breaks up the dopamine cycle of constant notifications. Honestly, I couldn't be happier about this place.
Not to be a wet blanket, but if not for Twitter and Facebook, tRump wouldn't have slimed his way into the White House. Nor would the antivaxx movement have gained the traction that vile cult did.
You forgot to add that he's the first Presidential candidate to have a "GoFundMe" at almost a $1mil to pay his legal bills. Only $450 mil and counting to raise!
I know I saw it, but can't remember the source. I do remember the content with arial shots of his vast holdings. It was like a tour of kleptocracy at its most pernicious.
After the Revolution of Dignity and Russian stooge president and kleptocratic oligarch Viktor Yanukovych skedaddled back to Moscow, Ukrainian TV did a tour of his lurid mansion and it was like an episode of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous on bad meth cut with Drano.
Execrable taste and criminal money seem to go together, trump being a great example. His Penthouse Apartment from which he pretending to see Muslims celebrating in Jersey on 9/11 or wait, he was at Ground Zero on the pile? being the ultimate collaboration between decorators for the late Saddam Hussein and Liberace.
It's so true. African dictators live like that, too. Probably native South African Trevor Noah's greatest segment on The Daily Show was when he illustrated how Trump is our first African dictator president, LOL
I keep thinking about the role of Lara Trump as overseer of the RNC. Is anyone else watching where money comes from? Trump is a believer in “back door” contacts. Wouldn’t that be the best way for dear Vlad to channel tons of much needed money without anyone knowing about it? It used to be money laundering through his properties or perhaps it’s still is -not in NYC- if we believe Letitia James. This is just food for thought.
I think Russian sanctions and frozen assets make that more difficult this time around. Look how quickly the Russian op against Hunter Biden collapsed. They left Aleksandr Smirnov out to dry, I think, because they no longer have the resources or intelligence reach.
I used to reside on Rick's feed in the good ol' days when Twitter was Twitter and they purged Russian trolls (as opposed to Twitter being owned by one, LOL) and I adored the community there. But the freaking trolls could be too much. This is my only Substack and I only started commenting here about a week ago. It has everything I loved about Rick's Twitter feed minus the trolls and it's why I post under my own name. I feel safe here.
I live in Oregon ; the whole state votes by mail . It is great.
I’m curious.
If Trump gets R states to refuse to hold elections and / or refuses to leave office in 28 for _____ reason. Who will remove him?
The military, FBI, Homeland Security Justice dept. , etc will be controlled by his fellow dictator worshippers. State governors have national guard, but R state N guard will not participate or oppose. SCOTUS has no army nor does the House or Senate.
How does America rid itself of a president who demands loyalty to himself, and finding plenty of seditionists interested, decides to keep power and become a dictator?
I don’t see how America avoids a Putin state.
Isn't it long past time to arrest and incarcerate without bail ALL of the Congressional participants in the J6 insurrection? Lincoln's assassins and accomplices were all hanged by now in that conspiracy...
Starve the degenerate orange daughter molester. His worthless spawn, too. The future of the USA and free Europe depends on it.
The GOP as “baby bird” imagery is priceless! And accurate.
Sadly all the political shittyness of Trump boils down to, he hasn’t enough money.
It’s an incomplete sentence and thought we have all come to understand as finished. Enough money to what?
It’s money that runs power. Good news is his mouth over runs his purse.
When he decided to run for president, Trump saw it as a branding opportunity. He was a lifelong Democrat (for NY machine politics reasons), solidly pro-life and he flirted briefly with the Reform Party (when he reveals full well that he knew David Duke was a former Kluxer), but I think he became addicted to the adulation he got as spokesman for ACN (a pyramid scheme he's being sued for that Robbie Kaplan is representing) at stadium events. Then he went down the rabbit hole with the birther stuff and palled around with Jerry Falwell, Jr. He realized there was an inexhaustible supply of marks in the Republican Party, so running for president would be the ultimate revenge against the Manhattan elites who had spurned him his whole life.
When he won, it turned out to be a sweet grift indeed. But it also brought back all the lurid stuff that every Tri State Metro tabloid reader remembered about him and that The Apprentice made the nation forget. In NY, all attention is good attention but as a president it's a double edged sword. He settled the Trump University lawsuit for the at the time eye-popping $25M. He defamed E. Jean Carroll and Barr put the kibosh on her action. He went after Michael Cohen for the same thing he's charged for in the Stormy Daniels affair, Barr railroaded him and a very furious and very righteous Michael Cohen emerged from jail and testified to Congress, igniting the NY criminal and civil fraud actions. And of course he was impeached in an attempt to interfere in the '20 election by leveraging what has turned out to be a false narrative about Hunter Biden and his father that was concocted by Russian intelligence.
If it was just about the money, Trump could have left office sitting pretty, his brand juiced again on the same steroids that Mark Burnett injected him with. But his overwhelming reason was and is to stay out of jail, which he of course compounded in epic form by the J6 Big Lie.
Grab him by the pursey. When he's a fool, he'll let you do it ;)
I'm from NY. His father was a grifter and a racist. Donald is too. He's a bad businessman and terrible person. All you say is also true but from the standpoint of a normal person that somehow drifted into the shadows. That back story is wrong. He *is the shadow. I recall those days in NY, I didn't party with him but I did at Studio 54 and knew of the crowd he hung with there and other places. Bad and to be avoided then and now. The problem is he got into office.
By grifter, I only mean Fred Trump got loans on promises he didn't exactly keep. Sound familiar?
And his grandfather was a draft dodger and a pimp! Such a distinguished family
I'm from NJ. I knew what Trump and his dad were in the late 70s from reading Wayne Barrett in the Village Voice. I was talking about his motivations. He ran for president as a branding exercise with very little faith that he'd win. If he lost, it would be almost the same result for the Trump brand. There's evidence that on election night he had a moment of terror that he'd actually have to be be president now.
George Conway makes the point that if you're going to do criming in the shadows, it's best not to become the highest of high profile public figures. That led to what will be his eventual downfall that has started with judgments that he doesn't have the cash on hand to pay.
Trump asked for a Mail-in-Ballot in FL in 2020, yet he calls them fraudulent? It's not the first time he or Melania used Mail in Voting either.
It's every GOP consultant's worst nightmare because older people like to vote by mail and older people have traditionally voted more for Republicans (though Joe has the lead now with the older boomers). But Trump's lizard brain also knows that the GOP is not attractive to anyone beyond his MAGA cult. It stands for tax cuts for the rich, corporate deregulation and abortion restrictions which are as popular with voters as an onion fart in a Volkswagen.
But Trump needs that purified, distilled MAGA cult of adoring worshippers who will follow him anywhere and believe all his lies, purged of all dissent and critical thinking. So he knows by instinct that the only way for MAGA to win elections is to suppress turnout, even if it means suppressing his own voters (because he's too dumb to think about this strategically). Hence his ludicrously self-destructive war on mail-in voting, despite using it himself.
I so miss the old Twitter! I had my own little community of interesting, productive and even fun people. And then Musk ruined it. Rick Wilson and Joyce Vance have gathered the type of people I want to engage with. I don't need everyone to agree with me. I just need intelligent back and forth and the ability to learn from others. Thank you, Rick!
Amen, Robin. I really loved Twitter when it was good, but even at its best it was too trolly and too full of would-be influencers obsessed with reach. Twitter always had a whole bunch of bad incentives. But what I've found posting here just a week or so is the total lack of bad faith. I saw exactly one trolly comment everybody jumped on (but me) and that's it. And I very much like to debate and have back-and-forth's with people. But there's no snark here, there's no disrespect, there's no assuming bad motives. This comment section may not have anywhere near the reach of Rick's Twitter feed, but that has a good side because it breaks up the dopamine cycle of constant notifications. Honestly, I couldn't be happier about this place.
Not to be a wet blanket, but if not for Twitter and Facebook, tRump wouldn't have slimed his way into the White House. Nor would the antivaxx movement have gained the traction that vile cult did.
Hey, I left Twitter due to bad-faith malicious reporting and I never had a Facebook. Rick's Substack is more like a dial up BBS ;)
You forgot to add that he's the first Presidential candidate to have a "GoFundMe" at almost a $1mil to pay his legal bills. Only $450 mil and counting to raise!
Seriously folks, we have a former president needing a Go Fund Me page to pay legal fees for his various indictments......WTF !
I know I saw it, but can't remember the source. I do remember the content with arial shots of his vast holdings. It was like a tour of kleptocracy at its most pernicious.
After the Revolution of Dignity and Russian stooge president and kleptocratic oligarch Viktor Yanukovych skedaddled back to Moscow, Ukrainian TV did a tour of his lurid mansion and it was like an episode of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous on bad meth cut with Drano.
Like if Liberace had bodies in his refrigerator.
Execrable taste and criminal money seem to go together, trump being a great example. His Penthouse Apartment from which he pretending to see Muslims celebrating in Jersey on 9/11 or wait, he was at Ground Zero on the pile? being the ultimate collaboration between decorators for the late Saddam Hussein and Liberace.
It's so true. African dictators live like that, too. Probably native South African Trevor Noah's greatest segment on The Daily Show was when he illustrated how Trump is our first African dictator president, LOL
If the Bloated Yam winds up in the 3rd Street Men’s Shelter in Manhattan, nobody will be better pleased than I.
I keep thinking about the role of Lara Trump as overseer of the RNC. Is anyone else watching where money comes from? Trump is a believer in “back door” contacts. Wouldn’t that be the best way for dear Vlad to channel tons of much needed money without anyone knowing about it? It used to be money laundering through his properties or perhaps it’s still is -not in NYC- if we believe Letitia James. This is just food for thought.
I think Russian sanctions and frozen assets make that more difficult this time around. Look how quickly the Russian op against Hunter Biden collapsed. They left Aleksandr Smirnov out to dry, I think, because they no longer have the resources or intelligence reach.
I hear there’s a vacancy in Freeze-A-Lago, Siberia. Make ‘em a deal, Dump!
Love this one! Working in half an hour, but want to make one comment. The kicks have the ick factor: kind of like eating pudding with your fingers!
Chinese knockoff pseudo-bling like that is already a thing and you can get a pair of gold colored fake Air Jordans for like twenty bucks, LOL
Better and better. To bad the NYT refuses to cover Trump...
Thanks, Bob, for this history summary. Context is everything. This conversation/thread is excellent and enlightening.
I used to reside on Rick's feed in the good ol' days when Twitter was Twitter and they purged Russian trolls (as opposed to Twitter being owned by one, LOL) and I adored the community there. But the freaking trolls could be too much. This is my only Substack and I only started commenting here about a week ago. It has everything I loved about Rick's Twitter feed minus the trolls and it's why I post under my own name. I feel safe here.
Welcome to the party!